1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to holders, and more specifically to holders for holding plastic shopping bags easily and conveniently.
2. Background Art
Plastic shopping bags have become ubiquitous to the shopping experience. Often, and especially when a shopper is leaving a grocery or department store, the shopper is required to hold a great number of bags, the number being in excess of the number of fingers for holding each bag. Moreover, as the thickness of the plastic shopping bags decreases to effect cost savings to the store, the shopper may experience an unpleasant sensation of the plastic cutting into the fingers as the plastic bag “handle,” usually just a hole in the plastic material forming the bag, bunches up and creates a sharp “edge”. When holding a number of such bags, the intense pressure on the shopper's fingers may be sharp enough to cut off the circulation of blood therein.
Another difficulty is experienced after the shopper has reached his or her vehicle in the parking lot, and has deposited the shopping bags into the trunk or baggage compartment. Upon arrival at the destination, the shopper must once again gather up the shopping bags by inserting the fingers through each of the bag handle holes, two for each bag, before carrying the bags to the final destination, e.g., the shopper's home. Care must be taken to ensure that each of the two handles, for each bag being transported, is engaged because lifting a bunch of bags when one is not being held, or is being held by one handle hole only, may lead to a bag falling to the ground or being emptied of its contents, and possibly the breaking of containers made of glass or plastic, and thereby requiring cleanup of the contents and broken glass. Thus, a method is needed to retain the bags in a position that would make it easy and convenient to pick them up, while ensuring that all of the bag handles are engaged so as to avoid having a bag slip from the shopper's hold or opening to disgorge its contents.
The prior efforts to address these problems have been by and large unsuccessful in solving these problems in an efficient and effective way. For example, some of these bag holders are open ended holder that provides for carrying bags having handles or other items. However, because the bag holder does not provide a complete enclosure, leaving a gap out of which the bag handles may escape, placing the bags when in the holder on a surface, for example the floor of a vehicle, cannot ensure that all of the bags will remain in engagement when the shopper picks up the bags to transport them from the vehicle.
Other attempts to solve these problems utilize a handle central portion with two hooks on the ends for engaging the bag handles. However, these bag holders have a hook end that returns to the handle, where it is held in place by the shape of the hook. The only impediment to the bag handle becoming loose and slipping out of the hook enclosure is the integrity of the plastic material comprising the holder. Because the clip portion of the plastic holder is thinner at the end which engages the handle portion, it is liable to bend when a force, such as the weight of a bag containing heavy purchases, acts against the closing force of the handle hook. Thus, a shopper would be required to confirm that all bags are engaged by the hook before picking up the handle. Moreover, the shape of this type of handle requires a balanced load on each hook on either side of the handle, otherwise the shopper will be forced to support the handle in an uneven manner.
What has been found lacking and what is disclosed and claimed herein is a bag holder that can provide the benefits of an easy to hold and carry bag holder which has a positive locking mechanism to hold the bags in place at all times, that moreover is easily loaded and unloaded by the shopper; and which retains the bags with the assurance that none of the handles have gone astray.